The use of jackpot systems in casinos is well known. The underlying idea is for the casino to pay a proportion of the amount bet by at least some players into a jackpot which can then be won by a player in accordance with various different systems. Although the payment of a contribution from the amount bet by the player into a jackpot initially represents a loss of profit to the casino, casinos are nevertheless keen to use such jackpot systems, because they encourage players to participate in games of chance, at slot machines and/or at gaming tables and thus increase the total turnover of the casino. Since the profit made in a well-run casino is a well controlled percentage of the total amounts bet, i.e. of the turnover, most casinos consider it advantageous to operate a jackpot system, since this increases their turnover and thus their profits, despite the investment the casino has to make in funding and running the jackpot system.
A typical jackpot system will start off with an initial sum of money, say US $100,000. The total amount of the jackpot will increase each time a bet is made by a player, with, for example, a series of illuminated displays showing the total value of the jackpot to the players so that they can follow the increase in value. It is usual for the casino to operate a so-called backup account. This means that a proportion of the money which is allocated for the jackpot system, is branched off into the backup account rather than allocating it all to the actual jackpot, so that once the jackpot has been won it can be restarted from the backup account at a reasonable initial level, say, for example, US $100,000. Systems are known in which the amount of money split off into the backup account is increased as the actual jackpot increases, so that the jackpot rises less quickly once a higher level has been reached. This can be done for a variety of reasons, such as financial considerations by the casino management and to avoid a very high jackpot appearing unattractive to the players, because they sense that the rules for winning the jackpot are too strict.
In order to maximize the attraction of a jackpot, it is also frequently the case that two or more casinos belonging to a chain are interlinked so that each casino makes a contribution to the jackpot of the other casino. This contribution is referred to as “the offset” in casino language.
Typically the rules for operating a jackpot system are fixed and the casino has only relatively few opportunities for varying the rules.
Various different types of jackpot system are known, such as a mystery jackpot, a progressive jackpot and a mystery progressive jackpot. For example, in a mystery jackpot system, minimum and maximum levels will be defined for the jackpot, for example a minimum level of US $10,000 and a maximum level of US $50,000, or, in another example, a minimum level of US $100,000 and a maximum level of US $1,000,000. A random number generator then operates to generate a random number in the range between the minimum and maximum levels. The first game played which increases the jackpot to the threshold determined by the random number generator results in the player at the respective machine winning the jackpot.
Another form of jackpot system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,882. A yet further jackpot system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,183.
One system which is in operation in casinos and which enables one of the standard jackpot systems to be operated is the Crystal Web system from the assignees in respect of the present application, i.e. the company GRIPS Electronic Gesellschaft mbH of Niesenbergergasse 37, 8020 Graz, Austria. The basic layout of this system is shown in FIG. 1 of the present application. This system can also be adapted to operate in accordance with the present invention through the provision of suitable software, as will be described later herein.
The problem with all jackpot systems known hitherto is that they only provide the casino with a very restricted ability to modify the jackpot system to suit the casinos' particular needs and, in particular, do not give the casino the flexibility which, in accordance with the invention, is considered desirable to enable a casino to configure its jackpot system to meet its own operating goals, to reflect its pattern of business and to motivate sections of its clientele, who, for whatever reason, may not hitherto have been adequately motivated to participate in casino gaming activities.